Look! It’s a liberal Christian going toe-to-toe with a conservative Christian creationist! They should have sold tickets.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Look! It’s a liberal Christian going toe-to-toe with a conservative Christian creationist! They should have sold tickets.
Or, for you non-Americans, happy Thursday! Or, for you Australians, happy Friday or Tuesday or whatever it is down in your topsy-turvy country where you’ve even got your seasons reversed.
Oh, heck, forget it. Happy Day! Find whatever reason you want to celebrate.
Again, for you non-Americans, this is a peculiarly American version of a fall harvest festival. We are supposedly celebrating an event in our history from the 17th century: the fellowship and cooperation between the Pilgrim immigrants and the native Americans that culminated in a shared feast. The truth is a little uglier and perhaps a bit more representative of our political reality. A gang of Puritan religious kooks who were too wacky and weird for their homeland emigrated optimistically to the new wilderness to the west, hoping to found a utopia for repressive fanaticism. They proved to be incompetent as well as crazy, and nearly died off completely in their first few years, but survived thanks to an affiliation with local tribes who were quite competent at successfully thriving in that environment, but were unfortunately strategically unwise in allowing these parvenu lunatics to persist in their midst.
So, yeah, we’re celebrating the survival of Republicans Mark I in the founding of our country. It was nice that they got along with the Indians while they were hungry, but don’t worry — it wasn’t long before the colony was stabilized, and then they resumed the habits of genocide, warfare, witch-burning, rebellion, empire-building, civil war, habitat destruction, and exploitation, i.e., normal history.
We traditionally celebrate this day with indolence and gluttony. Even better, since the holiday is always on a Thursday to give us a four-day weekend, the Friday after has evolved into something called Black Friday, in which stores offer sales to entice mobs into the malls for the biggest shopping day of the year, so we also celebrate with naked greed and commercialism. Like I said, it is a very American holiday.
I’m planning to spend it with a quiet family day — we’re getting together with my sons — and eat in moderation. Then tomorrow I’m not going anywhere near a mall and won’t be spending a penny…I’ll be catching up in much delayed office work. One nice thing about the holiday is that you can spend it any way you want.
Now this is an interesting beast. It’s a 220 million year old fossil from China of an animal that is distinctly turtle-like. Here’s a look at its dorsal side:
Notice in the skull: it’s got teeth, not just a beak like modern turtles. The back is also odd, for a turtle. The ribs are flattened and broadened, but…no shell! It’s a turtle without a shell!
Americans United has put up a story of religious discrimination from its files. Two women had a little problem with institutionalized religiosity in an Oklahoma public school district.
In 1981, Bell had just moved to Little Axe and enrolled her children in the local public school system. At that time, school officials were allowing a teacher-sponsored student group called the Son Shine Club to gather before school to pray.
Though the fundamentalist Baptist meetings were supposedly voluntary, the school buses dropped students off 30 minutes before classes started. Those who were not attending the religious meetings had to wait outside the building, sometimes in the rain or cold. The Son Shine sessions also extended into first-hour class time, Bell said.
This is typical: public schools aren’t supposed to endorse sectarian religion, but what they’ll often do is give certain religions a few extra privileges, and be a bit more accommodating…and the boundaries get pushed back a bit. It’s smooth and easy to do that, but trying to roll back those unwarranted privileges isn’t so pleasant.
After contacting the ACLU and filing a lawsuit, Bell and McCord became the subjects of hatred and even violence. Bell’s house was burned down by a firebomb. McCord’s 12-year-old son’s prize goats were slashed and mutilated with a knife. Bell was assaulted by a school cafeteria worker who smashed her head repeatedly against a car door. (School authorities praised the cafeteria worker, and she was forced to pay a $10 fine and Bell’s hospital bills, community residents raised donations on the assailant’s behalf.) McCord and Bell were both mailed their own obituaries.
Don’t make assumptions though: McCord and Bell were not atheists, although they were accused of being atheists. They just belonged to Christian churches that weren’t part of the dominant Baptist sect in the area. They still came to a rather reasonable conclusion.
“When I began the suit, I just wanted to stop the religious services at school, but I supported the idea of nonsectarian prayer in the classroom during school,” McCord told the National Catholic Reporter. “Since I’ve seen what religion can do to a community, I don’t support any religious observance in school.”
Amen, sister.
I’m not a fan of Toby Keith at all, but I’ll make an exception for this one time.
You seem to be going down a similar path — expertise is downplayed, any fool can do the job of government, irrationality is promoted to equal footing with reason. It’s worrisome. Didn’t your mother ever ask you whether you’d follow if your friends jumped off a cliff? Well, we’re clinging desperately to the edge of that cliff, and you seem awfully anxious to join us.
Take the case of Gary Goodyear. He’s a chiropractor and a certified acupuncturist. He’s a quack, in other words. And you’ve gone and appointed him to be your science and technology minister! Don’t you have any people up there who actually do Science and Technology? What’s David Suzuki up to?
Come on, fix this. It would really be embarrassing if the United States had to stage an intervention — it would be like having Rush Limbaugh show up at your door to chastise you for your substance abuse habits. Besides, you can’t count on us, since America is probably lying on a floor somewhere, shaking and spasming and shouting “flooba lalla maka wana taka doopa” while a minister is rifling through our wallet. We’re Sarah Palin driving an SUV with a big gun rack while watching the 700 Club on the ceiling-mounted video system, bound and determined to prove our superiority by crashing into anyone who cuts into our lane. We are not a good role model.
Please, Canada. You’ve always been like the sensible, moderate brother who at least sets a good example for us. We can’t afford to see you join us in irresponsible lunacy.
Bold atheists have been buying ad space on buses in London and Washington DC—it’s been a successful tactic for raising the profile of godless groups, and has also been somewhat controversial. The Atheist Foundation of Australia sought to emulate those successes, and met an obstacle: the ad company simply refused to allow them to buy ad space, without giving a reason, and you can tell it was simply religious bigotry behind the decision.
It’s not as if they were trying to put up abusive or profane messages. Here are some of the slogans they suggested.
We started off with “Atheism – because there is no credible evidence”, we put that to the bus companies, they didn’t like that and they said the wording wasn’t to their acceptance. And then we changed that to “Celebrate reason” and thought we’d make it a bit comical “Sleep in on Sunday mornings”, but they refused that also.
This refusal is coming from the same company, APN Outdoor, that previously ran Bible verses on buses — it’s clearly simple bias that is behind their decision. I hope someone is considering legal action, since this kind of asymmetry that closes channels of communication to one side of a public issue means the ad company is arbitrarily imposing their faith-based beliefs on others.
The US is too dependent on cars and oil, and the automobile companies have been total failures at addressing the needs of the country…which is why they’re now looking for bailouts. So I have to say I thought Keith Knight’s solution is very appealing. After pointing out the incompetence of our automakers, he suggests…
Yes! Rebuild the railroads and put together a national mass transit system! Now there’s a public works project that would put people to work and improve our infrastructure. I’d also really like to be able to climb onto a train at the local station when I have to travel.
It’s late (at least, where I am it is). Looking for something to while away the hours?
How about making paper models of Einstein, Sagan, and Darwin?
Or maybe you’d prefer stitching up a nice squid hat.
The US 6th Circut Court has just handed down a big decision: victims of abuse can sue the Vatican, and the Catholic church can be held liable for other claims against them as well. Ouch. Bleed ’em dry, I say.
